Frustration with the sequester seems to have ebbed. Some of the thornier issues such as furloughing air traffic controllers and workers at facilities such as the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard have been addressed by piecemeal legislation.

This legislation reflects what we might call the “squeaky wheel” method of governing.

Advocates for military spending like Senators John McCain, Kelly Ayotte and other hawks made enough noise that Congress gave the Department of Defense greater latitude on how to apply the sequester. As for the air traffic controllers, it appears Congress was embarrassed into lessening long delays at our nation’s airports, which were making headlines on almost a daily basis.

But less squeaking elsewhere in no way means the sequester should be allowed to run its course.

Here in New Hampshire, there are apparently not enough families and children squeaking to prevent Head Start programs from being shut down later this year. The job losses among government contractors have gone largely unreported. And with the sequester still in its infancy, quarterly GDP numbers have yet to measure much if any impact.

As readers well know, our editorial position is that government spending can afford the 2.4 percent cut brought on by the sequester — Congress’ way of avoiding tough decisions. Our economy cannot, however, stand up to happenstance government. Eventually, the arbitrary nature of the sequester is going to do damage — damage it will take that much more money to fix.

With more roads and bridges across the country ready to fall down, we cannot afford to delay federal help by furloughing workers or putting even a partial freeze on federal spending. Arbitrarily cutting Medicare reimbursements to providers solves nothing. It simply stands to increase costs elsewhere in our health care system.

Instead Congress needs to take the brief window between election seasons to get things sorted out in Washington and apply sequester cuts to obvious waste, made famous by the Bridge to Nowhere and the likes of Senator Tom Coburn’s (R-OK) annual “Waste Book.”

From there Congress needs to confront some troubling trends in government spending. From Heritage. org: ■ Over the past 20 years, federal spending grew 71 percent faster than inflation.■ Entitlement spending more than doubled over the past 20 years, growing by 110 percent (after adjusting for inflation). Discretionary spending grew by 60 percent.

■ Deficits have pushed up the debt each year since 2002 as federal spending exceeded revenue. Fiscal year 2012 marked the fourth consecutive year of $1 trillion deficits.■ Although debt held by the public surged from 33.6 percent of gross domestic product in 2002 to 73 percent in 2012, net interest costs have held below 2 percent of GDP because interest rates have fallen to all-time lows.■ In 1962, military spending was nearly half the total federal budget (49 percent); Social Security and other mandatory programs were less than one-third of the budget (31 percent). Two major entitlement programs, Medicaid and Medicare, were signed into law by President Johnson in 1965. ■ In 2012 entitlements were nearly 62 percent of total spending, while defense dropped to less than one-fifth (18.7 percent) of the budget.

It doesn’t take an Einstein to see where these numbers are taking the country and to clearly see the sequester is not an answer. But it takes some bipartisan cooperation and Congress doing what its being paid to do — govern.